Understand more about racial profiling in America

If you’ve ever worried about how you would be treated as a result of the color of your skin or other aspects of how you look, then you may be concerned about racial profiling. Racial profiling takes place when you’re treated unfairly and targeted as a result of your perceived race, national origin, religion or ethnicity.

There is no question that racial profiling is illegal. It sometimes violates the very core of the United States Constitution, which guarantees people the right to protection from unreasonable search and seizure. Racial profiling is also ineffective, leading to whole communities fearing the police and authorities, which ends up hurting everyone.

What are some examples of racial profiling?

Since Sept. 11, 2001, one example of racial profiling would be how the people of Muslim, Arab and South Asian communities have been treated in the United States. They are often searched by airport authorities, for example, when others, such as white or ethnically ambiguous individuals, go unsearched. Black Americans may be stopped when walking down the street in the evening, even though a white individual doing the same would not have been. Even Latinos have been targeted as some authorities take one look at someone who looks foreign and questions if they are in the country legally, despite America being a melting pot of cultures and ethnicities.

Racial profiling is not legal and should not be accepted. If you are pulled over, stopped and searched or profiled in other ways, it is important for you to speak out and to get help fighting for your civil rights. You have a right to live comfortably in the United States without this sense of alienation.